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Non-active Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama was moved from Cipinang detention center to the National Police’s Mobile Brigade detention center in Kelapa Dua, Depok, in the early hours of Wednesday for security reasons.

The transfer was made upon the request of Cipinang detention center warden Asep Sutandar.

Preparations for Ahok's transfer began at 10 p.m. and he was escorted from Cipinang at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, East Jakarta Police chief Andry Wibowo said.

Asep said the transfer was made to maintain order at the Cipinang facility and so that other detainees would not be inconvenienced.

Ahok was detained immediately after the North Jakarta District Court declared him guilty of blasphemy on Tuesday afternoon.

After he was detained, more than 1,000 of his supporters flocked to the detention center to protest his detention and to demand he be released. The detention center only has 22 guards.

“Other detainees were bothered by the noise,” Asep said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The protest in front of the facility also hampered people from visiting other detainees at the facility.

The sentence handed to Ahok was heavier than that recommended by the prosecutors. The prosecutors had dropped the blasphemy charge and demanded that Ahok be sentenced to two years’ probation and one year in prison if he reoffended.